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LAS CRUCES - For the second time in the last two weeks, 911 callers were unable to get through to the emergency dispatch center late Monday night and early Tuesday morning.
Another telephone outage, apparently caused by effects of a first outage two weeks ago, knocked out emergency telephone service for Las Cruces and Do-a Ana County for more than three hours.
Hugo Costa, director of the Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch Authority, said the 911 emergency dispatch system started experiencing problems about 10 p.m. Monday and completely went down about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday. Only cellular telephone calls could be placed to 911 until 3:30 a.m.
Costa said representatives with Qwest Communications told him the loss of service was blamed on a computer routing configuration of telephone line circuits that were modified during a Dec. 14 outage that knocked out telephone service throughout much of southern New Mexico and a small portion of Arizona.
"Apparently, whatever (Qwest) did, they forgot to undo what they did to restore service on Dec. 14," Costa said. "Supposedly, those circuits were reconfigured to bring back telephone service, on the 14th, quicker. When the system was brought back online, the circuits were supposed to go back
"Somebody dropped the ball or overlooked the changes."
But Qwest spokesman Mark Molzen, couldn't confirm the cause of this second outage.
"It's currently under investigation," Molzen said. "Restoring service, especially for public safety, was obviously our number-one priority. The technical details have been resolved to accomplish that and Qwest is moving forward.
"We are looking into exactly what happened. At this point, we can't exactly say what happened, and it wouldn't be appropriate to speculate until a thorough investigation has been conducted."
Costa said problems began to surface about 10 p.m. Monday when some Sunland Park residents called police there because they couldn't be connected to 911 service. Test calls on land-line telephones were made to 911 without success, and MVRDA's back-up plan of using the New Mexico State Police communications center, in southeast Las Cruces, was activated.
"From about 11 p.m. until close to 4 a.m. I was on a conference call with Qwest," Costa said. "The troubleshooting began, but nobody could seem to determine what happened. It went on until about 3:15 a.m., when they were finally able to get 911 back. By 5:15 a.m. we had the non-emergency line back."
No major problems were reported due to the loss of emergency dispatch communications.
"Thankfully, it was a real quiet evening," Costa said. "Typically, Mondays and Tuesdays are our slowest days, and particularly from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m., there usually aren't too many calls. I don't have an exact number, but I'd say we had a handful of calls at the State Police office. I'm not sure how many calls we might have missed, but it probably wasn't too many."
The latest outage came as the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission was conducting an investigation into the cause of the Dec. 14 outage, which shut off land-line telephone service across much of southern New Mexico. Sandy Jones, PRC commissioner whose district includes Las Cruces, said initial findings of the commission's investigation showed that a cut of a fiber-optic cable south of Socorro apparently happened because the Army Corps of Engineers didn't obtain a permit from the PRC to conduct core sample digging south of Socorro.
The commission has not yet announced if a fine for damages will be assessed, but Jones said if fines were levied they could be heavy.
"At this point, the commission is awaiting a final report from pipeline safety inspectors," Jones said. "It will probably be a few weeks, at least, before they can provide the commission with a determination."
Jones was in a commission meeting Tuesday when he learned of the second outage.
"If I can get it on the agenda for Thursday's commission meeting, I'd like Qwest to meet with us again," he said. "There's additional questions, and apparently some explanations that we aren't receiving."
Las Cruces and Do-a Ana County residents are encouraged to save MVRDA's non-emergency phone number, (575) 526-0795, in their cell phone address book, as well as the New Mexico State Police dispatch number, (575) 524-6111. In the event 911 was to go out again, residents are encouraged to call one of those alternative numbers.
In the event of an emergency where all phone lines are down, residents can get help at any city of Las Cruces fire station.
Mayor Ken Miyagishima said the latest outage of 911 service has only increased concerns city officials have. He has asked Costa to make an informal presentation to City Council at Monday's 1 p.m. meeting.
"The bottom line is, yes, I am very concerned this happened not just once but twice," Miyagishima said. "Ironically, I spoke to Hugo about this same issue (Monday) morning. I told him we need to have at least three or four additional lines, separate from Qwest is already providing. Those would be lines that aren't really used, but are ready to go if needed. I figure the cost to (the city) would be $150 to $200 a month for those lines, but that would be small in terms to the insurance we would have. It's something to talk about when we meet on Jan. 3."
Costa added that a final, official report of the Dec. 14 outage will be presented to Do-a Ana County Board of Commissioners when it meets Jan. 11 at the Do-a Ana County Government Center.
Steve Ramirez can be reached at (575) 541-5452.
No dial tone
•Land-line telephone service to the Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch Authority was disconnected again early Tuesday.
•The latest outage began about 10 p.m. Monday and continued until 3:15 a.m. Tuesday for emergency 911 calls.
•Land-line telephones could not call into MVRDA, but cellular phones could.
•MVRDA's non-emergency telephone line was not restored until 5:15 a.m.
•Emergency phone service for MVRDA was also interrupted for as long as five hours on Dec. 14.
•Qwest is conducting an investigation to determine the cause of Tuesday's outage.
•The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission has begun an investigation into the Dec. 14 outage.
